HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1889-8-9, Page 6THE BRUSSELS POST.
YOUNG FOLKS.
The Voyage to Slnmberland,
Shemileaway on the River of Dreams,
This little Skipper with ayes of brown,
As the fire-fly'o torah in the twilight gleams
And the garish sun goeo down ;
flier bark floats over the grimy town
To Slumberland, and its silver sea ;
The folds of the Skipper'o onowy gown
Are no whit fairer then the.
.hero are angel•birde In the warm, still air,
And the [skipper laughe with her eye of
brown
nd they sing to her old souse, sweet and
rare,
To the beat of their wings of down ;
They sing of a Prinoe of high renown
And a Princoee ever so young and fair ;
But where is the Princess had ever a crown•
Like the crown of her soft brown hair I
Cometh a storm o'er silver sea
That ebbe on the Dreamere' Land •
And the angel•birde fade out to the lee
Of this singular Slumberotraud ;
Ie there a Harbor, by angelaplanned,
From all storms, whatever they be,
From the wicked fairies of Slumberland
And the 1
h nuns in ire silver sea
w
Up like a flash comes the little brown head,
And the brown eyes only see
A billowy blanket of talk, outspread
On an ocean of dimity I
But it's fearlessly the Skipper will flee
With a soft little barefoot tread—
By the chart she learned on her bended
knee,
To the Iaven of "Mother's Bed."
JOHN PAUL BOCOON.
King Frederiok'e Rue.
One Summer morning, a great many years
ago, a boy was lying sound aeleepoua bench
in one of the rooms at Sane•Souoi (the oonn-
try palaue of the King of Prussia) with all
hie clothes on. Very gay Clothes they were,
from the trim bine jacket, with ite embrold•
Bred mile and shining brass buttons, down
to the smart shorn, with their well•poliohed
steel buckles. Bat the poor little fellow's
face was not as gay as hie drees by any
means. It looked sadly pale, and as worn
and tired as if he had been up all night,
So indeed he had,for toughold King Fred-
erick, who could work from 4 in themorning
trill 10 at night without seeming a bit the
worse, sometimes forgot that hie poor little
page -boy was nob as strong as himself, and
would often keep him on duty till Karl fell
asleep from sheer fatigue, just ashe appear-
ed to have done now.
All at once a bell rang sharply in the next
room. At that signal the page ought to
have jumped up and gone in to receive hia
orders for the day, ars he had to the fireb
thing every morning, no matter at what
hour he had gone to bed. But he was so fast
asleep that he never heard it; and the bell
rang again still more sharply without any
answer.
Then the door of the inner room opened,
and out came a very strange Sgnre indeed.
It Wee a small, lean, graethaired old man
in a shabby uniform coati and a pair of long
ziding boots, which looked ao though they
had not been cleaned for a month ; and as if
be were not untidy enough already, he had
smeared the whole front of his coat with
snuff, which fell off in %akee whenever he
moved.
His face might have been carved in stone,
en cold and hard did it look ; but in the
midair of it there gleamed an eye so large and
bright and piercing that it seemed to go
right through every one upon whom ib rest•
ed. But for this commanding glance one
would most likely have taken him for a
beggar, and have wondered what business
such a slovenly old fellow could have in the
palace at all.
But in reality this queer. shabby little
old man was no other than King Frederick
of Prussia himself, the greatest general end
statesmen in the world, and famous through.
out all Europe under the name of "Fred.
erick the Great."
One could see by the flash of his eye
and the Bet of his hard old mouth,
as he Dame striding oat, that he was
very angry at being kept waiting, and
that a terrible scolding awaited the
poor little [page, who lay sleeping there so
peacefully, knowing nothing at all about it.
Bat as the king's' eye fell upon the lad's un-
oonectono face hie mood seemed to change.
" Hum 1" muttered he, with the very
ghost of a smile flickering over his iron face.
',How famonely the young dog eleepo 1 I
only with I could have ouch a nap now and
then. One can see that he haen'b got to
worry himself about governing five millions
of men, or carrying on war agaiuot five
nation's at once. Hal whet'ethis 2''
A crumpled sheet of coaree paper, which
teemed to have dropped from Karl's hand,
waa lying on the floor beside him.
The king picked ib np, and thee° were the
first wards that caught kis eye, written in
the shaky, straggling hand of a very feeble
old woman:
"I thank yon much, my dear chili, for
the money that you have so kindly sent me,
which has been a groat help. Take your
old mother's blessing for it, and eee that you
alwaye do your beet to be a worthy and
faithful servant to our master, the ging,
whom God bleee and preserve."
As he read that simple message the soldier.
king's grim fare softened ars no one had ever
seen it soften before. Perhaps the memory
of his own mother, dead years ago, rose up
in kis mind once more; perhaps he was
touched by bhe old woman's prayer for him-
eelf, or by the discovery that this had been
the boy's last thought before he fell asleep.
"Were all my subjects like that," he
murmured, "I should be the luckiest king
in Europe. And so he has been caving
money from his wagers (and poor enough
wageo they are, I am euro) to send to hie
mother! Well done, my boy; thou'rt a true
Prussian 1"
At that moment Karl moved alightly, as
if about to wake.
The king noticed ib, and a new idea ap-
appeared to strike him, which mush have
been a droll one, judging from the momen•
May twinkle that lighted np hie stern eyes,
'Yee, that will be the best way," said he
to himself, "and a fine [surprise it will be to
him,"
Stepping baok into the room whence he
had issued (which certainly had very little
'(royal' luxury" about it, for it wan almost as
bare ea a cattle•shed,with no furniture save a
battered old deal table and a broken obair),
Frederick hunted in the table drawer till he
rummaged out te well worn writing•oase,
from one of the pockets of which he took
three gold coins.
Thee° he "lipped into the page's market
along with the letter, taking great Dare not
to awake him in doing so. When he rang his
bell violently and oalled out :
Karl, come here 1
The sharp, stern voice effectually rinsed
our hero, who started np ab onoe, and drew
beak in dismay ars he saw F'redoriok's keen
eyes &ted upon him.
"Pardon, your majesty, pardon 1" stem -
meted he. ' I was
rupted the king. Come in here and get your
ordure.'
As Karl sprang eagerly forward to obey,
the money which had boon pub loosely into
hie pooket, rolled ont again, and fell ring.
ing and chinking upon the floor.
"Hello, young man 1" oried Frederick,
"You ought to be a good deal richer than I
am if you can afford to fling your money
about like that."
"Oh, sire I" oried the boy, imploringly, "I
don't know anything about title money.
I don't indeed 1 Somebody must have
meant to ruin me by putting it into my
pocket, and then saying bleat I had stolen
it."
"No," said the king, gravely, "that money
is God's gift to you, to help you in aosioting
your mother, Write and tell her theta
know all about her, and that I'll take care
of her and you too."
And ging Frederick kept hie word.
BRIDGING BEE RIB STRAITS.
what Explorer letuir Saye—Mastodon IIs.
1441ne lu Aleesha.
John Muir says that ho has by no means
completed hie exploration in Alaska, and
that in regard to certain elephant remains
there, the bridging of Behring Sea, and
other matters ho hopes soon to add Infer -
motion that will be of great value to science,
Although the bridging of Behring Straits
has been widely ridiculed, Moir ie inclined
to think that such e feat will one day be
aaoomplished. He says.
" Senator Stanford's girdle of steel around
the earth via Bohring Sea is a perfectly
feasible scheme. Behring Straits can be
bridged. Ib is only sixty miles across in the
narrowest place, and there are three islands
strung along in it. This would divide the
bridge up into four divisions. Bub besides
this, the water is very shallow. In many
places it ie not over twenty feet deep. I
undertake to say that if a man was strong
enough to take one of our California red•
wood treed in his band he oould put it down
anywhere over the 600 miles of Behring
Sea and yeb have 100 feet of it left above
the water. This ehowe how easy it would be
to bridge the straits. The only trouble
would be from fleeting icebergs, but that
could be easily overcome by aonatructing
swinging bridges, like they have aoroas the
river of Chicago. In this way the straits
could be kept clear all the time, and trains
of care could run right along.
"There are so many strange things in
Alaska," added the discoverer of the Muir
glacier, "that have not yet come to the
knowledge of bhe public that one who the
seen them hesitater where to begin. Ete-
phant remains are found all over the greet
valley of the Yukon. As a matter of fact,
they are found everywhere throughout the
great western slope of Alaska. Dana and
Sir Charles Lyle needled the world by an.
nouncing that hairy frozen elephants were
found wedged among the Siberian icebergs
but scarcely anybody knows thee throughout
Alaoka are the remains of countless thou-
sands of mastodons. You can dig them out
and find them on the aurface everywhere. I
caw hundreds of them, possibly, on my last
trip, and I am now anxiauoly trying to get
up there to complete my inveetigatione. 8o
thick ere the elephanb remains that the
native Indiana, on finding them buried
partially in the ground. decided they were
some kind of great mole that burrows in the
Boil. This ie the story given me. I collected
a lot of remains. The collecting of ale.
pined tusks every summer ie a regular bald-
ness in Siberia just over Behring Sea. We
have just as many of them on the Alaska
side as they ever bad in Siberia. Ages ago
great herds of elephante roamed over these
shores. Perhaps they existed down to a
comparatively recent date, too, for the hairy
bodies and well-preeerved bones were evi-
dences of that."
Common Sense in the Pulpit.
If there is one plane which more than all
others domande the soundest of common
sense on the part of those who occupy ib, it
is the pulpit. And for this if for no other
reason, that custom has ordained that the
preacher shall have full control of the pro-
ceeclinge.Ide is "bird alone" for the time
being, and has things all his own way,
none venturing to question his statements or
reply to his reasoning. Hence it is desirable
that a man placed on what is really a "slip
pery plane " should have common sense of
the soundest, 11 he has not, the likelihoods
ore that he will cover himself with shame in
the eyes of sensible people and bring disre-
pute, Bo far ae the actions of one man can
do ao, upon an honourable calling. Au
example of peator01 imbecility is reported
from a small town in Iowa, The preacher
was young, green and modem, Ile had the
holiest horror of everything sinful and most
blood.ourdling notions as to the amount and
degree of sinfulness in that portion of the
vineyard where hie lot had been cast.
He eeema to have been an admirer of the
Sam Jones type of revivalist, and to have
formed himself somewhat after that model,
for he started hie campaign against Satan
by a terrific onslaught from the pulpit upon
the virtue of the women in the place. Some
earnest reformoro have contented themselves
with stinging rebukes against oertain °lassos
of women, even when they whiled to be
moat theatrical, It might be the ultra.
faobionable ret, or the unfortunate mill•
worker°, or servant girls, or 80m0 other claw
of women. Every now and then some plea
bet crank of none too holy imagination gets
his name into the papern by some euoh
sweeping denunciation. Bat nothing would
do (hie young theological David, so fair and
fresh from college halls, but an attack on all
the women in the town between the ages of
sixteen and twenbyfive, not one of whom he
said could be called a virtuous woman. It
ie nob surprising to bear that even eoclegiae-
tioal privilege could not protea( a man
against the oonequenoee of such brutality,
and that the foolish author of the slander
had to leave town to escape a coati of tar and
feathers.
What we wanb meetly, in the opinion of
the New York Times, is not so mnoh an ex-
tended market for disposing of our surplus
otope, but cheaper methods; of production.
If our vast Drop of corn oan be grown one
cent a Mabel cheaper than it now is we
should save $20,000,000, annually on that
orop along,
The recent story thab Dr. Brown•Sequard
had discovered an " elixir of youth" did
nob at fireb reoefve much credence, but it
eeeme to be a faob that the famous pphyeioian
hae announced nth a dieoavery. He alaimr
that by hypodermic Ijneebiono of a liquid
distilled from certain parts of animals he
hao made himbelf ten ye0re younger. Ib Ie
now abated, moreover, that Dr. Varlet, of
Paris, who ridionled the idea of euoh a
thing, has experimented with the fluid on
three enfeebled men, and ie almost oonvinoed
thee We are on the eve of a discovery by
Which weakness and disease oan be (vada.
opted, The anode 6f thee° two men alone
prevent the whole affair being looked upon
ars a hoax, and the scientific and medical
world will await with interest some preoioe
etatomeut from thorn of the nature of their
!'Minuet mind about that jupil,.xlewi" inter. , alleged dieooverq,
VICTIMS OF IMPULSE
Many Men with nn Earnest Destro to Live
Ara Forded le Dle by Boll'..
Destruction.
There are eufckiea and euioidee, and they
ltavo been written about and ooinmented on
so much by people who "never Dao a000unt
for men doing 00 tinted they are insane"
that poeaibly it le too much like threshing
old straw or letting the mill do that that
some into has said oan not be done—rind
again with the water that has passed' —to
tell of some of the peculiar ouieides or ab-
tempte, or dosireo to attempt that have come
under the writer's personal observation,
In the first place the assertion can bo
truthfully made that one-half of the ao-oalled
snioidee are not enicidee, but emotional in-
voluntaryour
Iriendsto find onewho has not at some time
in hie life had an bathe desire to throw him-
aolf off of "an high eminence" or met him•
self ander a tepidly passing train or allow
hennolf to become entangled In the large
drive -wheel of some immense machine and
you will find that they have to a man had
some snob experience. Many men who tali
of struggles with irresistible deeiree to make
away with themselves and think nothing of
' nd
bythe
to to
ars a
friend
t' woha
He ba d
happen
suicide route we forget
ALL ABOUT HIS STRUGGLES
and endeavors to fighb off the desire to do
away with himself and like the average
coroner's jury we say: "Killed himself while
laboring under a fib of temporary insanity."
This verdict more than half of the time be
wrong. Ib should be " accidental 'suicide
brought on by the viotim'e inability to resist
a morbid involuntary impulse."
A young man wars reoentlykilled ina sub-
urban village whose case this verdict would
have covered. He bad repeatedly told me of
the otrugglh he had with himself when over
he stood on the platform of a station while a
train was passing. "John,"'said he one day,
"if anything ever happens to me don't let
them say that I was crazy. I have as happy
a home as the sun shines on and am bleesod
with as interesting a family of little ones as
you would find in a month's jonrneyeUnfar-
tun0tely for me I allowed myself to be talk-
ed into buying a home in the suburbs and on
that account find that I have imposed upon
myself a daily etragglewith the,hydra•head.
ed monster self-destruction. I can not help
it. Every time I go near a railway track 1
have an almost uncontrollable desire to throw
myself under the wheels of the passing brain
They seem to say "Come tome, come to me,"
with a voice of command that I hove, up to
the present time, been able to resist, but I
fear that my power of reeisbanee is weaken-
ing and I eh011 soon give way. If I do, old
man, I want you to fight the insanitytheory
and explain my feeli+go to my friends. Of
course I might move into the city and have
had it en my tongue's end to suggest its to
my wife, but this would necessitate explan-
ations and only worry the little woman. I
may succeed in fighting off this foolish de-
sire, but if I do not and am eve pinked up
on a shovel I want you to let the world
know it wee not a suicide, but an aonb
cide."
I premised that this abonld be done and
tried to make light of what I called kis fool-
ish fears. He smiled a 'sickly, faint, no.
laughter -in ib smile end walked away. Half
an hour later I waa told that he had " com-
mitted euioid; thrown himself
IN FRONT OF A PASSING TRAIN ;
had stealthily hid behind a water tank, and
as the train dashed by flung himselt in front
of the engine and been ground so fine that
he had to be gathered together with a
shovel."
People could not understand it. And
finally all, with the exception of myself, be-
lieved that the corner's jury made no mis-
take when they brought in a verdict cf sui-
cide while insane.
I told my story, bun it' did no good. His
friends and relatives could not see how a
man could be other than insane who killed
himself when he had everything that the
heart could wish for. His wife finally am
knowledged that she did not wish to hear
any one say that her poor dear huabend'e
mind was nob affected, as the knew full well
that he would not have left her in the horri-
ble way he did if he had not been insane.
The foregoing amount of one m0n'e inabil-
ity to resist the morbid desire to do some-
thing horrible is only one core in thonsonds.
If the struggles that are going on daily, made
eometimee by nearest and dearest friends,
could be laid bare the expose would be a
frightful one. In a certain building in thio
city whish I frequently visit there is a largo
rotunda. Aro nd this rotunda run a spiral
etairoaeo, the bannieter of which le, low and
is made to continue on after leaving the stairs
at the 'sixth floor and acts as a guard rail for
the top floor. It is altogether too low and
any oix•footer falling against it would probe
ably full over into the pit of the rotunda. I
have heard several of the men engaged on
the oixth floor of this building tell in a
matter of fact (but to me horrible) way of
the desire that took possession of them
whenever they approached this guard rail to
THROW THEMSELVES 0188,
and most confess that I have found myself
edging away from It, with the indistinct,
undefined, inexplainable fuer that I might
throw myoolf over if I gob too oloee to it,
and have told others, who spoke of having
experienoed the same feelinge, to let the
world know that tb was nob a premeditated
suicide if I should ever be pinked' up at the
bottom of thee. pit shapeless, broken mase.
There is a young man in the city of Chi-
cago who has a dread of the bridges and al•
ways takes to the wagon -way when he
oronaee the river. Ho has been fished oub of
the muddy, stickey water at Clark street
bridge once, having thrown himself over the
rail. When brought to terra' firma ho could
not explain why he bad jumped over. "The
desire took possession of me and I did ib ;
that's all," said he, when questioned about
it. " I had jumped about a foot when 7
wished from the bottom of my heart that I
hadn't," ho continued, "and now, to avoid
a repetition of that cob, I alwaye take to the
middle of the road when crossing the
bridges,"
Suicides leo called) are increasing at an
alarming rate, and opposite bhe name of
many a man who is alive and well today,
with brighb proepeote, good health, happy
home, and everything en earth to levo for,
the word " suicide " will be written as the
cause of hie death, when ho war simply the
victim of ono of them irresistible Impaled.
gilled by a Shark.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Jetty 28.—Ed. Roe, a
young Englishman, while owimming in the
Cumberland tonna with fifteen other boys
from Ferdinandi, wan ebraok by a shark,
Which bit off the oalf of one leg. Roe wan
taken into a boat at thee, but bled to death
before reediest aeeisbanoe could be obtained.
This is the first Intens known of a shark
attaching a man in these waters,
St. Paul, Minn„ will have an electric
Street railroad tea miles long.
IffialeargelinenallaMeiterelialeenneiliDeaMthether
LATEST FROM EUROPE,
Kaiser Wilhe)m Furione--The Naval Soen-
dals to be Investigated—'The English
Exolud]ng the Germane from Alin.
Emperor William arrived et Wilhelm-
shaven the other morning, AB the imperial
yacht wan sighted entering the rondo salutes
were fired by the war -chips in the harbor
and by shore battoriee. When His Majesty
disembarked a guard of honor on the quay
presented arms and the band played the
National anthem. An immense arowd, in.
eluding hosts of visitors, were assembled to
greet the Emperor, Hie Majesty is bronzed
and vigorous looking.
Within an hour atter hie arrival the Em-
peror ordered the Admiralty to report on
the arreob of officials in oonneoticn with the
naval frauds. [Several officials left Kiel to
night for Wilhelmshaven. The papers are
obliged co maintain reserve and reoord only
the foot that the arrests extend to °entreot-
ors and marine officiate at Dantzig, Ham-
burg, Stettin, Wilhelmshaven and Berlin.
The position of the persons ar reoted and
the wide ramifications of the frauds have
sent a thrill of indignation and shame
throughoub the Empire.
Po day's talk in official circles represents
the Emperor ars furious. He is said to have
sent telegram after telegram to the highest
officials regarding the matter. Herr
Cramer, a highly placed official at
Kiel, le reported to have committed
suicide after his arrest, Ib is stated
that he was found bleeding to death
in hie cell, having opened the veins in hie
arm, and that he died while being taken to a
hospital The Freisinnige Zeitung announces
the arrest of the chief controller of the Kiel
workohope and of a prominent merehanb of
Minden who for many years has been sup.
plying stores for the Kiel and WilheImshav-
en etatione. They are imprisoned In Berlin.
The severity of the sentence pronounced
on the forty -sight miners convicted at Brea
Ian of rioting during the recent strike there
will probably lead to an appeal to the
Emperor. Tho prisoners are all under twen-
ty years of age, and a number of them are
nob more than sixteen years old.
An article in the "North German Gazette"
on strikes shows an ominous change of front
,on the part of the Government towards the
!miners. It argues that the recent etrikee
were a manifest abuse of the right of coati.
tion. Semi-official newspapers concur and
predict that the result of the Commission of
Inquiry into the miners' grievance will be
nil and that the Government will team to
interfere beyond anpproseing breaohee of the
law.
Dr. Peters hae sent: a letter from Eaet
Africa to the Cologne "Gazette," in which
he accuses the English Admiral Freemantle
of seizing the Peters expedition ateamer
Neera after the expedition had landed out•
aide the blockade limits, although the
vessel had no contraband of war aboard.
The Cologne "Gazette" declares that unless
the Government speedily adopts decisive
measures the English will completely exclude
the Germane from Central Africa.
THE ORIENTAL WOMAN.
Dreariness of the Llle of the Duman Fe.
¢male in the Far East.
It is rather a ourioue reflection that in
those countries where women's rights are
moat completely non•existenb, there the
specially womanly duties of woman are the
most grooely neglected, says the "Fort.
nightly Review." Travelers in Egypt, for
inetanoe, tell us that when the belle call the
hour of prayer every man stops whatever
work he 0 engaged in and prostrates
himself to Allah. No woman takes any
notice of the Bound. She is too low in the
scale of hnmaniby to make ber tribute to
the almighty worthy of acceptance. She
ranks in thin respect almost with the brute
creation. She is not withdrawn from her
domeetic duties by the olaim of religion upon
ber time and thoughts; And yeb the same
travelers tell urs that one of the horrors of
Egyptian life IS the fearful negleotfremwhich
the children Buffer. The poor little creat -
twee are inorueted by dire and sores and are
swarming with vermin. Children are fre-
quently seen lying in their mothers' arms
with six or eight f lee in each eye. Oph•
thalmia and various kande of blindness are
of course very prevalent, although death re-
leasee en enormously large proportion of the
children from their sufferings. Three out
of every five ohildren`who aro barn die dur-
ing infancy, and of those who aurvive one
in every twenty is blind. This is being
"thoroughly masoeline" with a vengeance,
and pointe an inetruotive moral as to the
cen0equenoee upon the character of women
of the denial of liberty, education, and re-
sponsibility. The harem life of oriental
ladies of high rank is dull and vacuous to
the last degree. They play with their jaw.
els, eat ewoatmeate, and smoke pipes, and
thus their day passes. If their ohildren are
ill they are hopelessly bewildered and utter-
ly unable to take ogre of them. They cling
with touching reverence to any average
English or Amerioan woman who may hap-
pen to visit them end Implore her aid in do-
ing the nimpleeb kind of nursing and moth-
ering for bhe ailing children. Nothing as.
toniohee oriental!' more than the position of
women in England. A Chinese mandarin
hae lately published hie views on this sub.
jeob. Women,he say., are even helped at
meals before men.. In hie oountry the men
eat first, and when they here quite finished,
if anything is left, the women are allowed
to have it. Another eastern, Seyd Ahmed
Khan, wan amazed to find that the servants -
girl who waited upon him fn lodgings in
London could road and write( and he record-
ed his deliberate,opinfon that the little scrub
in a London lodging, "compelled to work as
a maid.oervant for her living," was in reel-
ity superior in nearly all reepeots to Indian
ladies of the highest rank. "Such," he
adds, solemnly, "bo the effect of education."
Her Nephew's Paris Experienoe,
" So you've been to Paris," said Mts.
Bumbleton to hernephew. "1 repose ye saw
all the eights 1"
" Yes guess I took in most of them,"
" Did you see the plane where they made
Paris green 1"
" No ; bub I got acquainted with a lob of
fellows who have been very onooeoaful in
making Paris red."
The old lady simply remarked that oho
had never heard of thea color before.
Anxious to Please,
Hire. Young bride "I hope yea will
model your conduct upon that of M. Oldboy.
Ho le a paragon of husbands, Why, he tells
kis wife every thing that happens. 'f
"VII do better than that, my dear; I'll toll
you Iota of things that a°vel' happen,"
Air Traveling.
If Aeronaut Hogan has lost his life in
trying to navigate the air with the Camp.
boll airship, as now seems probable, it will
add ono more fatal occident to the many
which have happened in carrying on this
faooineting busbies. The craft in which
Hogan coiled away was the result of years
of study and experiment. Tho balloon parb
lues ogg•shaped, with the long axle lying
horiz)ntally. To this was attoohed a oar or
basket, ehaped muoli like a rowing atoll,
with a rudder at ono end, a propeller ab the
other and wings, or fine, on the aides, the
purpose being to navigate the air on the
principle that a fish swims In oho water,
Sinop the Montgalfier brothersdemonebrat,
ed in 1783 thab the air could be navigated.
innumerablo efforta have been made to turn
the face to some practical use. Men with a
genius for invention have been attracted
irresistibly to thio fascinating field. The
certainty that fame and fortune await the
man who demonotratee that the air oan be
safely and definitely navigated has been an
irresistible incentive to effort, and many
more have ruined themoelveo in health and
pother by pursuing the fleeing phantom of
atmospheric travel. Tho results, however,
have not justified the labors. Even soiene0,
which hoped so much from tho balloon, hag
been compelled t000cfoeo itself disappoints d.
Perhaps bhe man who came nearest bo pro.
ving the feasibility of aerial navigation 0000
John Le Mountain, of Troy, N. Y., and, au
is generally the oase, he obtained the least
fame from hie efforts. After repeated as -
condone he claimed that there existed at o.
certain height from the earth a continuous
and trustworthy current of air blowing East•
ward, and that a balloon would be wafted
steadily in that direction no long as it re•
mained in that atmospheric strata, He
believed that a balloon properly constructed
could be carried by this current safely and
surely across the Atlanbio Oman. To give a
practical demonobrobion of hie theory he
made an ascension from St, Louis in July,
1859, with the intention of lending soma•
where on the Atlantic ooast. Ho did land
in Jefferson County, N, Y., after a journey
of nineteen hours and fifty minutes, having
traveled 826 miles,
This voyage of La Mountain, which was
the longest dofmit° voyage ever made in the
air, did probably more to advance the science
of mroataticn bhan any other ono event since
the Montgalfiers sent up their hot air• ballon.
But little progress has boon made since hie
death, and the problem whetber airships
oan bo regulated and propelled morns as far
from being solved ae ever. Certainly Wien.
tore and tercnaute will not be encouraged if
the future justifies the fear that the latest
experimenter has coat tale life,
Strong and weak.
At bhe storming of Lolteha, dnrine the
Russo-Tnrkieh War, General Skoboleff or-
dered an after to lead a battalion to a Der•
thin point. The men marched on as long as
there were buildings to shelter them from
the Turkish fire, but when they came to the
open ground they halted, for an advance,
apparently, meant the annihilation of the
battalion.
Just at that moment the men naw Skobel•
leff riding oalmly at a walk across the fatal
space, while round him shoo and shell
whistled furiously.
In a fight, after the passage of the Balkans,
the painter Vereetohagin Saye that the rain
of bullets was the moat murderous he ever
experienced, though be had been several
times under heavy fire. In spite of the
danger, he watched Skobeleff walk slowly
along, his hands buried in the pockets of
kis overcoat. The whistling bullets did not
amuse him to bend hie head once ; his fade
was quiet, and his eyes restful.
"Now we know what running the gaunt
let means," said he to the artist, as a turn in
the road [sheltered them from the bullets of
the Turk.
"Tell me, honestly," said the artist, "have
you really so accustomed yourself to war
thee you no longer fear danger Y"
"Non000ee," replied the Russian (.General,
they think that I am brave and that I am
afraid of nothing ; but I confess that I am a
coward. But I have made ie a rule never to
bend down under fire. If you once permit
yourself to do that, you will be drawn on
farther than you wish. Whenever I go into
action I say to myself that this time there
will bean end of me,"
But though courageous ander fire, the
Radian General was a coward at head•quar•
tare. Before hie troops he always appeared
in a full dress uniform, with his hair neatly
trimmed and scented. But in the presence
of hie superiors ho wore a worn•000 coat, a
cloak hanging all awry, and a rap °rushed
down on the baok of his head. He seemed
ombaraesed, es if afraid his elegance might
give offence.
This hero of many battles was supercti•
time. He believed in lucky and unlucky
deem, refused to sit down with thirteen at
table, jumped from his neat at the opilling of
a little sale, and left a room in which three
candles were burning.
What a bundle of oontradfebion is man 1
A general with a will that enableshim to
walk slowly across a battle -field swept with
bullets and shell, but not strong enough to
keep him in a room where three candles are
burning.I •
AUGUST 9, 1889,
BOORP]ONS,
Their Abunelnnce In Lower OIoxlco—A
Pleasant Pince inli hich to Moen.
" If over you ohould happen to go down
into lower Mexico," avid L, T, Stanley, the
electrician, to a Now York Sean men, " and
abonld notion that your bed wars eat up on
inverted tin pans, as you heave seen the four
corners of Dorn dribs fixed to keep out rate,
and that the bed had a abet stretched
above it, running to a peak at the top like
the roof of a house, don't any a word but get
right in and go to sleep, If you ebouldo'b
go to sleep as soon as you get in, and ebould
hear something drop on the ehoeb roof above
you and roll down and tumble on the floor
at the nide of the bed, lio deiil. By and by
you will hear the nam0 drop and roll and
bumble, and it won't be long boforo Wu be
drop, prop, drop, and roll, roll, roll, and
plink, plink, plink, on the floor, Don't get
up ; if you do you might think you wore
death with lightening a0 soon as you pat
your foot on the floor, for the ohnncee are
that you would atop on a ocorplon the first
thing, and the scorpion has a stinger that
he carries for instant and effective nee,
Scorpions are just about as plenty there-
abouts ae lithe aro at hone. They hide by
day and attend to business at night. The
scorpion asnakes furl with a
o its a
ion is a r w
P
aper on the end of it. It lieke to
get in bed with folks,6 and if, it wasn't
for the tin pane on the bod•poete it
would climb up and get In with von
that way, and if aha bed wasn't roofed with
the sheet it would drop on you from the ceil-
ing. When you get np in the morning you
will be apt to find a few gaarte of dead
scorpions lying on the floor In fronb of the
bed. They all oommittoa euioide. After
taying to got into bed with you a few times
and being tumbled off the sheets every time
or stopped by the tin pane they got mad
ani stuck their stinger in their heads and
and killed themselves. A aoorpion will
commit suicide on the 'slightest provocation.
It has a temper as hot and as quick as kero-
sene en a kitchen fire. If one scorpion le
passing by another one and happens to touch
ib there's a figbt at onoe and two dead scor-
pions are the result. Pot 100 eoopiono in an
mclosare and throw a little stick or a little
piece of dirt among them and the scorpion
that is nearest to where the etiok or dirt
falls will turn and tip hie spur hobo hie
nearest neighbor and in leas than two seconds
the entire 100 will be mixed up In the fight,
Tho way their stingers and claws and lege
will Sy is a sight to see. Ae long as there
is one scorpion alive the fight goes on, for if
one happens to survive the other ninety -
Mambo will pitch in and have it out with
himself and the first thing he known he ie
dead.
" It ie a fact that scorpion, or atom -nu
as the Mexicans call them, are ab certain
seaeone of the year ars numerous alntonb, as
flies. They are within the creaks of the
walls, between the bricks of the tiles on the
floor, hiding inside your garments, darting
everywhere with ineonoeivablo rapidity,
their tails, which hold the sting, ready to
fly up with dangerous affect upon the slight-
est provocation. Turn a corner of a rug or
table-spreod and you disturb a flooriehing
colony of them. Shako your elide in the
morning and out they flop. Throw your
bath sponge into the water and half a dozen
of them dart out of its cool depths, into
which tboy had lain themselvee away during
the night. It is not often that you see one
of the mahogany -hued reptiles that is more
than two inches long, but they sometimes
show up with the formidable proportion of
a five -inch length and all that it implies.
There is a smaller variety than the mahog-
any scorpion. This one is yellow and ten
times more vicious and dangerous. Ib is at
midday that the bite or sting of than veno -
mons little pests is meet feared, as the
natives say it is then moat poioonous. The
deserted old mines of Durango are simply
scorpion hives. They have bred and lauds -
ed there undisturbed for centuries. A few
yearn ago the government took ofiioinl notice
of their deadly presence and placed a bounty
on them; which is paid en the presentation
of a scorpion's tall and obi tg at the office of
the government agent. Many natives carry
a braes tube, and in ease of a bite from a
scorpion it is pressed over the wound, on
which ib note like the bleeding•oup of a sur-
geon, and draws the poisoned blood one. A
hollow key has been used successfully in the
sante way. Victims of the yellow acorpion'e
bite have been known to lie for days in con-
vuleion, foaming ab the mouth, and with
stomach and limbs swollen 0s in dropsy.
Others Buffer no worse coaoequenoes than
they might from an ordinary bee sting.
Brandy taken until atapetaation follows is a
favorite remedy for aoorpion bibes in Mexico,
ammonia is also given with good results.
There is nothing the Mexican or Texan fears
more than the yellow or black 000rpion of
Durango except the bloating ratbleanake of
Staked plain, and that ie probably the most
deadly reptile on Otto American continent."
•
A Pig Mistake..
A merehanb whose articulation has a decid-
ed tendency in the direction of a lisp had
engaged a oleic who was not aware of hie
vocal peculiarity.
" John," said the merchant who wish -
An Anoient Turk ed to lay in bio• winter [stook of pork,
Those who aroamens to .remain in the "go oub and bay fgrme two or three thews
flesh beyond the ordinary duration of .thin end pigs."
mortal life will be interested in the habits "Yes, Dir," did John, much elated at the
of the old Turk who has recently died ab commission.
Haddatha, aged one hundred and thirty John returned late ab night, looking
years. Old Hadji Soliman Saba ,had seven an though he had performed a hard day's
wives, all of whom died before him : he was .work.
the father of sixty sons and nine daughters, " Did you get them 2" asked the mer -
who have also gone the way of all flesh, and ahonb.
the year before' hie death he woe thinking "Only pert of them," was the reply.
of marrying again, but could not obtain the " I bought all I could find;bub there were
necessary funds to buy. a bride, Sets wee a only eight hundred to be ad 2"
farmer unto big life's end ; hie diet consisted "Eight hundred 1 Eight hundred , what,
mainly of barley bread bean (vegetarians bbir 1" asked the astonished lieper.
take hotel) and water and only twine aycar, "Eight hundred pigs," wee the reply.
on high festivals, did he eat meet. 3io Yon told me to buy two or three thousand
olothea were even more simple then hie dieb, plge ; bub they are not to be found."
ooneieting of shire only, and when he travel. ' Two or three thonoand pigs I 'I did not
led a pair of Wetmore. Hie bed was a mattress tell you to doany such tupid thing. I
and a draw mat, and it had never been a. thaid yen should buy two or three thews
"bed of dolmen" till three days ,before his and pig's 1" exolaimed the merehanb,
death, "That's just] what I said,"' answered the
clerk. "Two or throe thousand pigs; I
The construction of bhe Congo railway ie boughb.all I could fled,"
now assured, the neeesoaryfundshaving been "The merchant now began to see the
all eubsoribed. The Belgian Government origin of the mistake. It was, apparently a
has taken $2,000,000 of the bond° at 3a per oosely joke ; bub there was no remedy, Who
gent„ and English, Continental, and Amari- pigs had boon fairly bought, and there was
can capitaliets the remaining $5,000,000. no way but to make the bent of a bad bare
Only two brides a week will bo rho, but pan. gain, The grunters were duly paid for and
senger and freight rates will be very high, abut up, to bo fattened for market. It so
and it is expected that the road will pay a happened thab pork took a Budden rico et
fair percentage of profit on he ooet. It may that time, and the merehanb realized a large
be that when Emin Pasha makers up hie mind profit on his involuntary investment.
to leave Ventral Aftioa he will travel the
greater pub of the distend by rail, a strange
contrast wlbh the moaner of hie entrance into A Aiusioiat'e Tad.
tiro country and with that of Stanley's jour•
nay in search of him, A musician brought to despair by the poor
Lightn(ng sbrnok ono of the towero of the playing of a lady In a room above. his own
Oelogno Cathedral on Juno 22, god one.half meats hot one day in the hall with her throe.
of the enormous stone flower which crowns year•old ohild and nays in a moat friendly
each attire fall shattered Into the street. manner : "Your little one there plays quite
Lightning strikes there not infrequonbiy, but well for her age 2 I hear her pracbioe ever
05101y'doan any damagefclay l" y
r;